Digital Dimension Gets Explosive for Live Free or Die Hard

Digital Dimension has completed nearly 200 visual effects shots -- including a number of the movie's most action-packed sequences -- for the June 27 release of Twentieth Century Fox's LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD.

Directed by Len Wiseman, the film is the fourth installment of the DIE HARD franchise starring Bruce Willis as tough cop John McClane. Digital Dimension was awarded standout sequences such as the spectacular destruction of a helicopter by a police car in mid-air and an elaborate car crash in a darkened tunnel, as well as a wave of blackouts, fender-benders and evacuations of government buildings.

"With each sequel in the DIE HARD series, the filmmakers have upped the ante on the action, so we needed the absolute best visual effects teams for LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD," said Patrick McClung, visual effects supervisor on LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. "We chose Digital Dimension because of its reputation offering boutique VFX attention while rivaling the work delivered by the huge studios."

Digital Dimension's 2D and 3D teams worked on several pivotal action scenes, including two signature shots featured prominently in the film's trailer. One involved McClane and Farrell narrowly avoiding being crushed when a car bounces off two other vehicles just over their heads. Digital Dimension composited the actors into footage of a practical car crash, adding CG glass and interactive lighting for added realism. In another, McClane launches his cop car up a ramp to destroy a helicopter. The shot involved combining plates of a stunt man jumping out of a helicopter with McClane's cop car plowing through the chopper, and creating CG rotor blades and a tail rotor that both split into a thousand pieces upon impact with the police car.

Other scenes on which Digital Dimension worked included building a 250-foot digital tunnel extension in Autodesk's 3ds Max to make an underpass look like a mile-long freeway during a harrowing car chase and crash, adding CG rubble to a pivotal explosion. The company also used the artificial intelligence-driven Massive software to create 1,000 digital people to match groups of extras that appear in live-action shots spilling out from the U.S. Capitol Building and Treasury. Digital Dimension also did extensive rig and stuntman removal and added CG cars, smoke effects and Washington D.C.-style background plates to the movie, which was partially shot in Los Angeles.

Said Daniel Lombardo, exec producer at Digital Dimension: "Our company has earned a reputation for not only creating quality visual effects, but also being flexible in the face of changing production requirements and delivery schedule. On LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD our goal was to support Len Wiseman's vision of the classic action film style, by creating visual effects shots that integrate seamlessly with the live action stunts..."

Digital Dimension (www.digitaldimension.com) is an award-winning visual effects studio with locations in Burbank, California, and Montreal, Canada. The company was founded in 1997 and specializes in 3D animation, motion graphics and visual effects for film, television and interactive media. Digital Dimension has garnered three Visual Effects Society Awards and six Emmy Awards. Digital Dimension recently worked on HBO's BURY ME AT WOUNDED KNEE and BLADES OF GLORY.